The liquidator of Bernard Madoff’s brokerage, who said today he is planning a second payment to Ponzi scheme victims, might have $5 billion more by next month to increase a planned payout from a $2.3 billion customer fund. Madoff trustee Irving Picard announced the possible increase in a statement after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal by investors seeking compensation for lost profit. That decision frees most of a $2.3 billion customer fund by reducing the scheme’s calculated total to about $17 billion covering only lost investments and excluding so-called fake profit that would have raised the total to $57 billion. Read Bloomberg report [...]

Investors in four funds that lost more than $1.2 billion in Wall Street swindler Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme will receive $405 million in payouts over the next three years, New York’s attorney general said Monday. A settlement with hedge fund manager J. Ezra Merkin was approved Friday in state Supreme Court in Manhattan. It settled state civil charges filed in 2009 claiming breach of fiduciary duty by Merkin. He had collected management fees while steering assets to Madoff from Ariel Fund Ltd., Gabriel Capital L.P., Ascot Fund Ltd. and Ascot Partners L.P. Read Wall Street Journal report [...]

On Monday morning, as the Supreme Court was issuing its big ruling on the Arizona immigration law — and prolonging the suspense on its Affordable Care Act decision — it also quietly decided to end the suspense for the victims of the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme. Without comment, the court declined to hear a case about which Madoff victims should be compensated and which should not. Practically from the moment that Irving Picard became the Madoff trustee, he took the position that his job was to get money back for the “net losers” — that is, those who put more into the Madoff fraud than they took out. He planned to do so, in part, by “clawing back” money from the net winners, who took out more than they put in. Read New York Times Opinion [...]

Money manager Ezra Merkin has agreed to pay $410 million to settle a lawsuit brought by the New York attorney general that accused Merkin of steering client money to Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff, a person familiar with the settlement said on Sunday. Justice Richard Lowe of New York state court signed off on the settlement on Friday, the person said, and it is expected to be announced on Monday. The person asked not to be identified because of not being authorized to talk about the matter. Read Reuters report [...]

Clients of J. Ezra Merkin, a prominent Wall Street hedge fund manager who invested his clients’ money in Bernard L. Madoff’s epic Ponzi scheme, will recover more than $400 million under a civil settlement negotiated by the New York State attorney general’s office. The deal, the first settlement of a government action against Mr. Merkin, was approved by a New York State judge late on Friday, according to the office of Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman. The agreement, which is also one of the largest settlements by an individual investor in the extensive Madoff case, is expected to be publicly announced on Monday. Read New York Times report [...]

The Supreme Court declined to review how the trustee for Bernard Madoff’s customers calculates victims’ losses, a decision that could help speed a payout of billions of dollars. Without comment, the court let stand an August 2011 decision by a federal appeals court in New York that approved of the calculation method employed by Irving Picard, the trustee liquidating the imprisoned Ponzi schemer’s firm. Read more on Reuters [...]